Monthly Archives: May 2013

Join us on June 9 from 12-5pm at the Bay View/Dogpatch Annual Fiesta. The corridor between Dogpatch and central Bay View will be closed to traffic to host its 4th Annual neighborhood Fiesta. The Paolo Mejia Art Gallery and Design Studio will be participating with our monthly artists reception that will be held from 1-5 pm. There will be art booths that will be selling artwork and food to celebrate the occasion. Pass by to meet and greet our artists, see wonderful artwork and purchase art to put in your collection.

Roberto Mendez is a Central Valley artist that paints in oil. In this particular painting, he paints a figurative element in a very loose and expressive way that mimics mid-century avant-garde expressionist style. Visually abrasive and obscured in darkness, Roberto creates emotionally charged artwork that incorporates his cultural heritage and his experience living as a Mexican-American.

(Photo caption: “Children of The Filipino Channel (TFC) create art to support programs for child rescue and rehabilitation in the Philippines.” | Photo credit: Bryan Reynoso)

Children of The Filipino Channel (TFC) paint to raise funds for ABS CBN Foundation International’s flagship program

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Redwood City, Calif. (May 22, 2013) – ABS CBN Foundation International believes that charity starts at home and starts early. Hosting Kids heART Bantay Bata, the nonprofit partners with Filipino American artist Paolo Mejia whose work and advocacy supports emerging artists and designers to raise awareness and increase support for the foundation’s flagship program, Bantay Bata (Child Watch Philippines). The art classes, attended by children of the employees of The Filipino Channel (TFC), are a venue to create original art that will be reproduced on cards, made available for purchase. Its proceeds will support the multi-awarded initiative that rescues and rehabilitates impoverished, abused, and neglected children in the Philippines.

The program is inspired by Bantay Bata’s first rescue in 1997, Jessie, a then 6-year old boy found under a kitchen sink, pale and severely malnourished that his arms were no thicker than ladles. The lives of thousands of children like Jessie who suffered from abuse were changed with rescue, immediate medical attention, and recovery at the Children’s Village where love, care, and healing proved a potent formula for rehabilitation. Now 21, Jessie’s gift of artistry with remarkable perspective and proportion have brought him solo art exhibits and global support for awareness on children’s rights.

Having grown up around ABS-CBN, the Philippines’ largest broadcasting network, Jessie’s art has consistently focused on towers, OB vans, and the station’s ringed logo, with a focus on the cube: a healing homage to the box from which he was rescued.

The corporate social responsibility arm of ABS-CBN International and The Filipino Channel (TFC), ABS CBN Foundation International engages the children of the global network’s employees in a campaign to support Filipino children whose lives have yet to be turned around.

“Our philanthropy starts at our home, at TFC,” says Jo Ann Kyle, Managing Director for ABS CBN Foundation International. “The children are deeply engaged and understand that they paint for a purpose. Knowing that kids as young as 4 years old create art with the less fortunate in mind gives a more layered and solemn beauty to their raw talent.”

Notecard reproductions of their art will be sold at the Philippine Independence Day Council, Inc. (PIDCI) parade in New York on June 2, 2013 and will be available for purchase online at www.abscbnoundation.org beginning July 2013.

“Charity is more than monetary; it is a service to help those in need and a way to improve life,” said philanthropic artist Paolo Mejia. “The art class taught at the ABS-CBN International studio is just one way to share and empower the creativity in children, and to make their craft more meaningful.”

Sixteen years later, Bantay Bata has helped countless children lead lives of promise, guided with compassion, safety, and respect for their humanity. Through the report of abuse, many victims have been freed from the crutches of fear. Through the global community and the charity of the children of TFC, this work continues.

To learn more about ABS CBN Foundation International and opportunities to support its programs, visit www.abscbnfoundation.org.

ABOUT ABS CBN FOUNDATION INTERNATIONAL:

ABS CBN Foundation International is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization dedicated to improving the lives of disadvantaged Filipino families in the Philippines and around the world. Its flagship program, Bantay Bata (Child Watch), is a child abuse rescue operation that responds to an average of 15,300 calls for assistance a year. The program assists more than 21,000 children and families in relocation communities and feeds at least 4,400 severely malnourished children a year. Its education program serves 4.2 million elementary school children and their teachers. Other programs include Sagip Kapamilya (disaster rescue, relief and rehabilitation), ETV in schools (school reform in elementary schools) and Sagip Kalikasan (environmental programs).

In the United States, the organization partners with Filipino-American organizations and associations in addressing community issues–youth truancy, housing, issues affecting the elderly, health, and emergency needs. For more program information, visit www.abscbnfoundation.org.

Everyone is cordially invited to attend our June group art show called “Figure It Out!”, a figurative art show consisting of 13 local artists. The show will focus on the beautiful figurative body and how artists sees the figure in their own perspective. The art show will be up from May 28 – June 29.

Stop by the gallery, meet and greet artists, see strong and diverse art, and purchase a piece to be put in your collection.

Rich Sigberman is a North Bay artist who works with watercolor. His early body of work are reminiscent of early modernist painters. Rich is attempting to maintain a continuity with the past but evolving by altering the geometric cubist style to a more organic based cubism.

In this particular piece, he used cool toned color scheme, with hints of warm accents to create interest in areas, without sacrificing the feel of the color schemata. The transparent effects of watercolor creates a sense of depth and dimension with varying value ranges. His organic evolving elements is spontaneous and energetic that is hinting an expressionistic overtones.

Rich further evolves the concept by adding collaged elements on the painting making it even more interesting visually.

The Paolo Mejia Art Gallery and Design Studio is asking everyone to join us to help fund raise for a good cause by purchasing art from our featured artists’ gallery. Percentage of the proceeds will be donated to our selected non-profit foundation. The non-profit foundation that the gallery is supporting is called Bantay Bata (Child Watch). Bantay Bata (Child Watch) is a non-profit foundation that was established to rescue abused, abandoned and dislocated children living in the Philippines.

The art gallery is helping to fund raise to rehabilitate an old, worn down, dilapidated center that’s in a dire need of repair for their rescued children. While the center is being used for shelter for rescued children, keeping up with the cost of maintaining the facility has been tough with lack of funding. So, in the past years, the center has been braking down due to lack of funds to keep it maintained. In much ado, the children’s foundation and gallery’s goal is to raise up to $80K in order to fix the entire center. With the funding, it will help fix broken and rusted windows, cracked and chipped walls, torn and holed ceilings inappropriate for living conditions. We ask everyone, your friends, family and anyone else that can lend a hand to help raise fund for a great cause.

If you are interested in purchasing art visit our site at www.paolomejia.com. Or, if you can lend a hand by donating in monetary value please contact us at paolomejia@hotmail.com or contact JoAnn Kyle at ABS-CBN Bantay Bata Foundation International: JoAnn_Kyle@abs-cbn.com. Any help will make a difference in the lives of these rescued children. Thank you for your time.

Erica Steiner is a mix media artist that works with oil and gold leaf foiling. Her work delves in the innate impulse of humanity that deals with repetition and ornamentation. She uses repetition and ornamentation to indicate man’s impulse to material excess. Material excess is man’s language to express and identify who they are and how they integrate in society. Erica’s insight into man’s ability to make decorative art is profoundly influenced by historic folk and conventional art making. The nuances that makes repetition interesting is what strikes Erica to make her delightful decorative artwork.

Jeff Hemming is a Bay Area artist who paints in oil and creates a complex work of art. The style of work he makes falls in a maximalist genre. Jeff’s work shows a hyper-exuberant and complex overlaying of converging elements in an entropic manner. In Jeff’s work, the elements are images of materials that connotes society’s excess, and in addition, he amalgamates the concept of the ever changing macro/micro-relations between humanity and his environment.